Racker was the one to make the first move. Two giant elementals emerged from the walls behind him, each the size of a siege tower. Their eyes, burning with fire, were focused on their target — a small human figure. Ash made a few passes with his staff and released the names that lingered in his mind. White lightning flashed and thunder struck, as if announcing the opening of the Heavens. Crows with beaks and talons made of darkness and steel, and bodies woven from the ashen clouds, descended with a loud caw. Like the mythical Roc, they crashed down on the elementals. The battle raged.
Stone tore through the darkness, scattering giant feathers. The steel beaks pierced through the rock, raining rubble on the stone. Caws mixed with the fury of nature and the roars of the stone giants. A terrible symphony flooded the dead lands of the Fiery Mountains, and even the roar of the volcano couldn’t drown it out.
Ash spoke a Word, struck the ground with his staff, and the scattered feathers flew into the air, turning into sharpened blades. Like a hail of needles, they rained upon Racker, who formed warriors with shields out of scattered stone and granite. Steel rang against stone, striking sparks.
The young mage picked up the small flames and fanned them into a fire. A roaring column, ten yards high, came down on Racker’s head like a twisting snake. He leaped to the side, spreading his arms wide. Bringing them together, he unleashed a violent river of azure energy that swept away the flaming snake. It then rose like a tidal wave, revealing a chariot drawn by horses.
Ash thrust out his staff and the chariot clashed against it, smashing into a shower of glittering drops that hit the dome. At that moment, the elementals grabbed the crows and tore them into pieces. However, they couldn’t come close to Ash. Straightening up and stepping over the corpses of the dead birds, they froze, shackled by the frozen droplets.
Ash was gathering strength for another spell, but he was running out of time to activate it. Racker leaped out from behind the stone giants and brought his staff down on his opponent. His body was the color of armor, and his veins thick like ropes. He had activated his third form, combining his “selfness” with the name of fire.
Not having the time to activate his form, Ash took an awkward step to the side. Something whizzed past him and crimson droplets stained the floor. Racker immediately reached out with his right hand, and, drawing a narrow arc, almost cut Ash’s head clean off his shoulders.
The young mage shouted a few Words even before he could form them. The first compressed the air in front of him, the second formed it into a sphere, and the third pushed it toward Racker, but he ignored it and swung his staff like a baseball bat. The sphere burst and the ribbons of air licked the columns supporting the stone vault. Thunder and dust swirled in a terrifying dance.
Having gained enough time, Ash pointed his staff at the curtain of dust. The wall of rubble opened, unable to resist the pressure, but Racker wasn’t there.
Ash looked around, trying to spot his opponent, but he couldn’t find him anywhere.
“Behind you!” a female voice warned.
Without turning, Ash struck the ground with his staff, and a ring of fire spread in all directions. Racker jabbed the tip of his staff into the flames and turned the ring into a huge serpent. Its body was as strong as Hu-Chin’s. It rushed into battle, but it couldn’t touch the mage with its fangs. Like a butterfly, it was pinned to the wall by bloodied spears.
The storm died down, and the dust settled. The two mages stood facing each other. Racker with a cut on his chest, left by a black blade that broke through the stone shields, and Ash with a red stain on his shirt that ran from his shoulder to his waist.
They looked into each other’s eyes and understood that these simple spells wouldn’t bring them victory. Racker was the first to come to his senses.
“Fourth Form: Impersonation!”
Dozens of warriors emerged from the flames that surrounded Racker and enveloped him like a cocoon. Tall, statuesque, and heavily armored, they spread across the hall in flashes of fire. Opposite of the fiery legion was a pack of hundreds of wolves, their flaming fur flapping in the nonexistent wind. Snapping their jaws, they howled at the moon hidden behind the ashen clouds.
The warriors rushed into battle. Fiery claws and fangs crumbled against armor, and flaming swords were torn out of the mighty grips by scorching claws.
Wood hit against wood. Each blow released such a powerful wave of air that it turned the metal and stone into dust. Columns cracked, some of which fell to the floor with a crash, and another spread out like lava. Subject to the power of the mages, it enveloped the wolves and the warriors, giving both even more power.
Dodging, Ash ducked under the staff and swung a backhand at Racker’s legs. The staff, whirling in the palm of his hand, should have shattered Racker’s kneecaps, but it met a stone beam. The blows rained down one after another.
Racker turned the wolf that had broken through the line of warriors into a sword, and pressed down on Ash. His staff glittered with red-hot metal as it kept hitting the ancient wood. The created blade fluttered around, but now and then disappeared, changing shape according to the will of its new master. The battle took place wherever the gaze of the unwitting spectators fell. The fire wolves were gnawing at the warriors; the two mages, their skin dyed the colors of the elements, were trying to finish each other off in one quick stroke.
Walls crumbled, floors cracked. Huge holes appeared wherever the echo of the clash of the two staffs could be heard. Pools of lava hissed where the flaming minions fell. Smoke and soot became the banners of the two armies, and the thunder of the Heaven became the sound of their battle drums.
“Fifth form,” Ash began, but they finished together, “The Elements!”
The warriors and the wolves were gone; a sea of fire boiled behind the two mages. Filling the entire space from floor to ceiling, it burned even the air between them. The walls began to melt like candle wax. Despite the two shivering shields, the Stumps felt their eyes and lips dry up. The hot air burned the lungs. A moment passed, and the two walls, drawn by outstretched staffs, collided.
Chapter 59
H aving tamed the element, the mages molded it to their imagination. A huge tiger wrestling with a panther was replaced by a sword and a mace, which then morphed into soldiers, similar to heroes from ancient frescoes. The fire roared, the flames raged, and thunder seemed like a distant cry of the wounded Heavens in comparison to their crackling and rumbling. The lightning that cut through the burning clouds seemed pale compared to the bright colors of the magic flames.
A flaming replica of Guido, the size of a young dragon, reared up. Its neighing was deafening, and the sound of its hooves kicking lava made one’s heart freeze with fear. Opposite the horse was a bear. A powerful roar shook the ancient halls, and the claws left ghostly trails in the air. The horse dashed forward, turning into a falcon half-way through.
The bear leaped, turning into a vulture.
The Falcon turned into a lynx.
The vulture into a tiger.
The lynx into a basilisk.
The tiger into an ogre.
The basilisk into a dragon.
The ogre into a demon.
And when the dragon and the demon clashed, there was an explosion the likes of which the Stumps could never have imagined.
The citadel was torn apart like a flimsy wicker basket. A huge ball of dire, inside which the two opponents could just barely be told apart by the color of the flames, became bigger with every heartbeat. At one point, it emerged from the collapsed and melted vault, pushed everyone back against the wall, and shot a column of flames toward the sky. The clouds spiraled toward it, and the brightness of the flames made the pillar visible even from the Erlinda Valley.
“What are you fighting for?!” Racker roared over the firestorm. “For revenge?!”
Ash was silent.
“What am I fighting for?” he thought.
Using the moment of confusion, Racker attacked. The tornado wavered and a
ball of flames crashed down on Ash’s head. When the flames died down and the dust settled, the Stumps watched with wide eyes as the smoldering figure of their friend embedded in one of the surviving walls. It was as if some giant had hit the mage, nailing him into the stone.
“Greatest mage, my ass,” Racker snorted and spat.
Before his spit reached the floor, he screamed in pain. His right side was pierced by a fire-covered staff. Behind him, the surviving flames flickered, out of which emerged Ash. The figure in the wall crumbled away, leaving behind only a black silhouette.
Ash instinctively jumped back. The pained cry grew into an enraged roar. Racker’s body was once again undergoing a transformation. His skin swelled and burst, revealing bleeding tissue and white bones. His eyes were spinning in their sockets like spinning tops.
Sensing that something was wrong, Ash sent a ribbon of fire toward the shuddering lump of flesh, blood, and pain, but it bounced back against a shield. The mage unleashed a myriad of spells, but none managed to reach their target.
Soon, in the middle of the huge hall stood a huge red dragon. Scratching the ground, it left deep furrows in the granite. Bright red flames escaped its roaring mouth, and its amber eyes shone with anger and bloodlust.
At that moment, Ash realized that by having consumed the White Essence, Racker had become a semi-divine creature. The Blue Essence that he had inherited, didn’t have that much power. He took an instinctive step back. He didn’t know if Racker had figured out the secrets of the Seventy-two Transformations or if he had changed shape intuitively. Whatever the case was, such a creature had no right to exist. It violated the laws of the Seventh Heaven just by breathing.
The dragon spread its leather wings and lifted off the ground. Ash was certain that it’d come plummeting down and breathing fire the moment it was high up enough.
Racker was getting ready to fly off when Ash broke into a run. Jumping onto the dragon’s chest, he plunged his staff into the gap between the armored plates of the reed scales. The dragon soared, flapping its gigantic wings. The ashen embrace of the burning clouds was rapidly approaching, but Ash held tightly to his staff. Racker, arching in pain, lost control of his new form and collapsed onto a ledge.
Ash tossed and turned on the rocks for a while, trying to get over the pain and get up. The dragon, shaking its head, pushed off from the ground and hovered in the air, flapping briskly with its wings. Rising to his feet, the young mage was forced to hold his staff out in front of him and cover his face. The flapping of the dragon’s wings created a gust of wind so strong that Ash’s cloak almost choked him as it struggled to remain on his thin shoulders.
“You naive, half-breed freak!” Racker roared, and his cry echoed across the hot rocks. “Where do you think I got enough potions to poison the entire army?! Who do you think gave me the order?! Who was more afraid of us than our enemies?!”
Ash closed his eyes, remembering the screams of his soldiers, and the feeling of blood-soaked grass underneath him.
“The king,” he whispered. “I knew that Garangan ordered us dead.”
“Then for what?!” Racker’s roar was probably heard even in the Jasper Palace. “What are you fighting for?!”
“For what...?”
“Nor for what,” the mage said, shaking his head. “But for who.”
“You’re risking your life for the daughter of the man who betrayed you?!”
Ash looked into Racker’s eyes, but saw no glimmer of reason in them — he had long been taken over by madness.
“There’s no parental sin big enough to make a child atone for it.”
The dragon roared again. It arched, its stomach glowing with a steady white glow from within. It opened its fanged maw and released a stream of white flame. Ash managed to jump off the ledge at the very last moment. Turning around, he saw a hole in the mountain. The dragon’s tail, having gained a life of its own, smashed the side of the mountain, creating a shower of smoking rubble.
“Show it to me! Fight with all your might! I want to see your true form!”
“Yes...” Ash said quietly, and held out his staff in level with the horizon. “The time has come.”
The gray cloak fluttered behind him and turned into a pair of leather wings. White flames shot out of the fanged mouth. The final chord of the battle was struck, finishing off the symphony that was alien to human ears.
The ends of the staff flashed with blue fire. Magic gathered around Ash, crushing the stone, its light growing brighter until it exploded in all directions. Like a hungry beast, it licked the stones, evaporating them.
“Sixth Form: The Destroyer of Cities,” said a cold voice, “Ash!”
The flames and the magic were gone, leaving only a black-gray cloud, around which there were almost no rocks. The cloud trembled and formed a gigantic blade. Five yards long, it towered over the dragon’s head like an executioner’s ax.
Racker opened his mouth and engulfed the blade in white flames. Ash struck with his staff and the weapon disappeared, turning into a cloud once more. Circling around the dragon, Ash pierced it with a hundred daggers, hit it with giant hammers, and cut it with spears.
The dragon raged and trashed, but each breath it exhaled released more ash than fire. Finally, he was trapped in a cocoon. The mage struck the ground with his staff, and the cocoon began to shrink. A cry was heard and then white rays burst from the inside. Ashes filled the air, and the dragon soared into the sky. It disappeared among the burning clouds and then fell like a stone.
It was falling like a diving falcon, and its mouth was surrounded by flames. Ash struck the ground with his staff for the third time, and a wave of blue flames produced countless clouds of ashes, which then took the shape of a huge bow and arrow.
The dragon roared and exhaled fire. The bowstring hummed and the arrow struck the flame, hitting the wall and spraying the ground with molten stone.
When Racker, unable to slow down the fall, got close to the ledge, Ash jumped.
“First Form: Incarnation!”
A small ball of blue flame pierced the armored scales. The stench of burnt flesh singed the nostrils. A deafening roar rang out. The dragon’s wings hung limply as the two fell to the ground. Their fall was swift, and their landing left the ground trembling for a long time. The floor of the citadel broke and caved in, shooting pointed slabs of granite upward.
Ash, towering above the body of the fallen dragon, watched its burnt heart beat slower and slower through the hole in its chest. Racker slowly assumed his true form. The wings retracted into his back, the claws turned into nails, and the giant limbs slowly assumed a humanoid shape. The young mage, whose strength was almost gone, knelt down in front of his opponent and lifted his head with difficulty.
“That... was a good... fight...” Racker wheezed. “I had to... try...”
Ash nodded.
“It’s time to sleep for a very long time, my friend.”
Racker coughed up blood and bared his teeth.
“Can’t say... that I’m looking... forward to it...”
Ash flinched.
“Do you know where Sporangia is?”
Racker’s eyes widened and he laughed. After a moment, his head fell back on his shoulder and his eyes glazed over. Death had claimed its prey.
Ash scrambled to his feet but almost fell when his eyes fell upon a gruesome scene. The Stumps were still huddled in their corner, but the shields were gone. Blackbeard’s shield had gotten so hot that it had fused with his arm, but he endured. Alice’s wand was cracked and split in two, and Lari and Tul were holding Mary’s body and pushing back tears. Pale as a birch tree, she pressed her hands to the stone that had pierced her stomach.
The mage ran over to him, throwing aside his staff. A trickle of blood ran down his chin.
“No, no...!” he wailed, trying to cover the wound. His hands slid over the bloodied fingers of the others but... “It can’t... It... It doesn’t have to be like this!”
He looked
at the faces of the Stumps, but they either hid their eyes or shook their heads. One couldn’t live with such a wound, and a healer couldn’t do anything without a wand. A catalyst was both the stronger and the weakest point of any mage.
“Flower...” Mary whispered. Her lips were crimson with blood, but she pointed a trembling hand behind the Stumps. “Flower... Girl...”
Ash turned and saw a beautiful Star Flower in Racker’s clenched hand. He might’ve not been noble in life, but he must’ve remembered what honor was before he died. Touching his staff, Ash spoke a Word, and the flower flew over to them. It floated through the air and landed on Mary’s chest.
“Good...”
“Don’t speak!” Alice cried, her cheeks glistening with tears. “You’ll bleed to death...”
Mary smiled, nodded, and held back a cough.
Ash bit his lip harder as he reached into his shirt and found the pouch that Oberon, the King of the Flower Fairies, had given him. In it were ten pellets capable of restoring his energy. Without a moment of hesitation, he pulled out the pouch, untied it, and popped a handful of them into his mouth. Almost immediately, he felt like a powder keg exploded in his stomach. His heart began to beat so fast that one beat became indistinguishable from the others. Bloody tears trickled from his eyes, and a choked sob escaped his throat.
“For every magic, there’s a limit beyond which you cannot go,” he recalled his words, spoken not so long ago.
“What are you doing?!” Alice cried.
Ash, filled with enough power to call himself equal to the Gods, raised his hand over Mary’s body.
“Stop!” Blackbeard shouted.
He would’ve pushed the mage’s hand away, but he couldn’t. Neither could the others, with their fingers firmly pressed to their friend’s wound.
Ash. The Legends of the Nameless World. Progression Gamelit Story Page 40
